The one thing that struck me about the one interior layout (when the hick wolf is in the lamp and zooms out the window to a nearby building) is how Avery (re)moved pictures and other background detail so the characters would read better. Just marvellous.
@Yowp- Same thing with the layout of the hick wolf and Red Riding Hood. He had the background extended and the table moved further away from the door. Tex Avery Les Dessins is loaded with layouts and they have lots of notes like that on them.
@Tom- One of my all time favs too. I wish I had more layouts from this one.
Beautiful layouts! These should all be hung in a museum somewhere. All of Tex Avery's MGM work is on my list of all-time favorite cartoons, so it's really a joy to see rare production stuff like this.
What I find interesting is that these are animator tracings/roughs present on the BG layouts. Notice the note to Johnny Johnsen (I believe that's Avery's handwriting) telling him to go see Walt Clinton about the placement of the chairs. That means the BG was being planned around animation that was already being done, rather than before it. Greg Duffell showed me his complete sets of layouts for His Mouse Friday, Drag-Along Droopy, and Pup on a Picnic, and it's more of the same. Quite the opposite of today's system.
@Yowp- Sorry I accidentally clicked delete on your comment instead of publish, because I'm a huge spaz. I thought it would be Walt doing layouts. He took over after Irv Spence right?
@Thad- So would the animators work around rough layouts and then when the animation was done would they finalize the BGs? I would have never have known that thanks for sharing that info.
I'm not sure about the specifics, so I can't say so for sure. I just know that my mind was completely blown by the discovery of the backgrounds being done around the animation that afternoon at Greg's. Of course, it makes more sense to work that way.
I can see many gags in this cartoon that would not require some layout before hand. However, what about that gag when the country wolf is looking for Red ? I can't see how they could have pulled off that one without devising some sort of background before the animation was done.
Yeah, Kevin, that's what I was asking about. We hear about Johnny Johnsen doing backgrounds and Ed Benedict doing characters (and I gather Gene Hazelton was before him) but I've never heard who did Avery's layouts. Of course, I imagine Tex reworked everything anyway.
It's nice to hear Greg's preserved some of the layouts. I'd love to see those scanned some time.
Wow! Layouts from one of my all time favorite cartoons! Awesome! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that struck me about the one interior layout (when the hick wolf is in the lamp and zooms out the window to a nearby building) is how Avery (re)moved pictures and other background detail so the characters would read better. Just marvellous.
ReplyDelete@Yowp- Same thing with the layout of the hick wolf and Red Riding Hood. He had the background extended and the table moved further away from the door. Tex Avery Les Dessins is loaded with layouts and they have lots of notes like that on them.
ReplyDelete@Tom- One of my all time favs too. I wish I had more layouts from this one.
Beautiful layouts! These should all be hung in a museum somewhere. All of Tex Avery's MGM work is on my list of all-time favorite cartoons, so it's really a joy to see rare production stuff like this.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find interesting is that these are animator tracings/roughs present on the BG layouts. Notice the note to Johnny Johnsen (I believe that's Avery's handwriting) telling him to go see Walt Clinton about the placement of the chairs. That means the BG was being planned around animation that was already being done, rather than before it. Greg Duffell showed me his complete sets of layouts for His Mouse Friday, Drag-Along Droopy, and Pup on a Picnic, and it's more of the same. Quite the opposite of today's system.
ReplyDelete@Yowp- Sorry I accidentally clicked delete on your comment instead of publish, because I'm a huge spaz. I thought it would be Walt doing layouts. He took over after Irv Spence right?
ReplyDelete@Thad- So would the animators work around rough layouts and then when the animation was done would they finalize the BGs? I would have never have known that thanks for sharing that info.
I'm not sure about the specifics, so I can't say so for sure. I just know that my mind was completely blown by the discovery of the backgrounds being done around the animation that afternoon at Greg's. Of course, it makes more sense to work that way.
ReplyDeleteI can see many gags in this cartoon that would not require some layout before hand. However, what about that gag when the country wolf is looking for Red ? I can't see how they could have pulled off that one without devising some sort of background before the animation was done.
ReplyDeleteThese are real nice--a real beaut!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Kevin, that's what I was asking about. We hear about Johnny Johnsen doing backgrounds and Ed Benedict doing characters (and I gather Gene Hazelton was before him) but I've never heard who did Avery's layouts. Of course, I imagine Tex reworked everything anyway.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to hear Greg's preserved some of the layouts. I'd love to see those scanned some time.
These are amazing
ReplyDelete